The European Commission adopted an action plan for the European telematics industry to take full advantage of Europe’s new Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Galileo and EGNOS. The latter was launched in October 2009 and can offer satellite navigation signals up to ten times more precise than GPS. The Commission believes the downstream market worth of its satellite navigation programs to be €100 billion.

“Europe simply cannot afford to ignore the economic benefits of taking full advantage of this market,” says Antonio Tajani, vice-president of the Commission. “The alternative is not an option. Action must be taken to ensure Europe's SMEs become aware of the extensive business opportunities and the European citizens about the vast variety of possible applications.”

The action plan will dictate activities in the global navigation space until 2013. One goal will be to allocate €38 million of funding to a broad spectrum of research proposals on GNSS application in 2011. Another will be to investigate possibilities for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), to seek certification of Galileo for Intelligent Transport Systems, and to target the road transport community.

New solutions from Satmo

Satmo Intelligent Vehicle Tracking unveiled two new telematics solutions, i-SATMO and SATMO4COURT. i-SATMO is an iPhone app that provides customers full access to Satmo’s tracking dashboard anywhere in the world on their smartphones. SATMO4COURT, meanwhile, is a system developed for companies that supply fuel cards to employees. The system monitors fuel station visits and crosschecks them with the location of the vehicle to prevent and track down thefts.

Visioglobe wins 2010 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge

Visioglobe won grand prize at the 2010 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge for its location-aware mobile app Visiostreet. Visiostreet is a navigation software solution that harnesses social networking to allow users to quickly find points of interest and travel references—through everything from Tweets to photos on Facebook—in major cities. The solution provides routing enabled by NAVTEQ maps and is supported by NAVTEQ’s Enhanced 3D City Models. Visioglobe will receive $735,000 in cash, plus data, tools, and services from NAVTEQ.

NAVTEQ expands traffic data

NAVTEQ announced it has significantly expanded its traffic database, NAVTEQ Traffic Patterns, to cover every single road across 18 European countries, a 1,200 percent increase year over year. The database is created using aggregated and verified historical data from a variety of national and international sources—in all, over three billion private and commercial probe points per month worldwide. Using this traffic condition data, navigation systems can calculate routes that avoid roads usually congested on a given day of the week or time of day. The expansion will make the database more comprehensive and help navigation customers avoid time-consuming traffic jams.

Automotive infotainment revenue set to decline

The automotive infotainment market will shrink from $29.5 billion worldwide in 2010 to $24.8 billion worldwide in 2015, according to a new study from ABI Research. ABI attributes the revenue shrinkage to price erosion on embedded in-vehicle navigation systems. While consumers may be enticed by glitzy video and audio content, it’s hard to beat free or cheap alternatives on smartphones, says the report. Additionally, ABI believes the industry faces the threat of sweeping legislation to deter driver distraction.

WebTech Wireless launches new Quadrant

WebTech Wireless launched a new version of Quadrant, its Web-based fleet management solution and user portal. The new Quadrant (R) Fleet Management Interface features an online graphic user interface that provides online help and customization options for large fleet operators. Additionally, Quadrant (R) offers enhanced reports for idling and speeding, real-time job management with Garmin, and new mapping features that allow managers to create Landmarks and Geofences to better track their fleets.

Kore partners with Connected Development

KORE Telematics and Connected Development announced a partnership to accelerate and foster the adoption and production of M2M solutions. In the coming years, KORE customers will benefit from Connected Development’s expert hardware and software design and development, while Connected Development will benefit from an expanded customer base that will speed the time to market of its solutions.

Masternaut Three X develops telematics for trash

Vehicle tracking firm Masternaut Three X has developed a Web-based telematics system to help North Lincolnshire in the UK track its refuse collection vehicles. The system allows the North Lincolnshire council real-time access to refuse data, which helps the council respond more quickly to customers as well as to improve truck efficiency. The council has self-funded the solution from money accrued from service improvements and fuel savings. The council now is integrating Masternaut’s GreenerFleet environmental management tool to record the refuse fleet’s carbon footprint. Once that’s finished, North Lincolnshire will be among the first cities to provide accurate CO2 measurements for its waste and highways services.

This website uses cookies, including third party ones,
to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to
improve your experience and our services.
By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our
Cookie Policy
and Privacy Policy.